Page 29 of The Mentor
Khan groaned and looked to Magni and me. “I know this is all innocent fun but…” He gave a nod in the direction of the women. “They’re sensitive and don’t share our sense of humor.”
“That’s because your humor isn’t funny,” Pearl said with a sweet smile and leaned against him.
Khan rewarded her with a private smile and instructed us men: “Don’t let the boys get away with it. Just set an example and make it stop.”
“It’s not that simple,” I argued.
“Yes, it is.” Khan insisted. “Just fucking punish them if they won’t listen.”
“I would be more than happy to,” Magni defended himself. “But then what do we do about the girls’ revenge? Do we punish them too?”
“What revenge?” Khan asked.
Kya wrung her hands. “I’m not proud of it, but the girls brought in a jar of mosquitoes and left it in the boy’s dorm overnight. They've been scratching everywhere for days now.”
Christina looked to Boulder, who was smiling smugly. “I can't imagine who gave the girls that idea,” she said with a shake of her head.
“Hey, no one touches my Raven.” Boulder crossed his arms and I frowned at him. We all loved Raven but because she and Kya had lived with Boulder and Christina when they first arrived, Boulder had formed a special bond with the girl. Seeing her leave in a few years was no doubt going to be painful for him.
Khan made a dismissive hand gesture. “Just give the boys something to ease the itching. We’re in 2437, for fuck’s sake. How hard can it be?”
“I wanted to, but Archer said that the pain would teach them a lesson,” Kya explained.
“That’s right,” Boulder agreed. “They need to learn not to mess with the girls.”
“But it's notallnegative,” Kya insisted quickly. “Willow and Hunter are bonding. He's very protective of her, just like we predicted he would be.”
“She's very protective of him too,” Magni pointed out. “Yesterday I punished him for teasing one of the younger boys and Willow came rushing to her brother’s defense.” He wrinkled his brow. “She actually started arguing with me that Hunter shouldn't be forced to climb the tree because it was too dangerous.”
“See?” Kya nodded enthusiastically. “Isn’t that nice?”
Magni scrunched up his face. “No, it's not fuckingnice. I don't like it when students question my authority, and I could have thought of a much harder punishment than climbing a tree.”
“And how about the fight training?” Khan asked and changed the subject.
“I've never had a better group of boys to work with,” I said. “All of the Nboys are born warriors; they are physically strong, fast, and skilled at fighting.”
“Why is that?” Pearl asked and turned to look at Khan. “Were these boys somehow chosen based upon their physical strength or did you pick a wide representation ofnormalboys like we agreed upon?”
“All Nboys are physically strong and skilled,” Khan said and gave me a pointed look. “Right, Archer?”
“Yes,” I confirmed, because I didn't want to upset my ruler and tell the women the truth: that the boys had been handpicked and were all the best of the best in the Northlands.
“Interesting,” Pearl said slowly. “So, you are saying that if we go to a normal school here in the Northlands, we’ll see boys of this caliber in every classroom? And while we’re on the topic, would these ordinary boys be as handsome as the boys here?”
We men exchanged quick looks because we all knew the truth; after all, it made complete sense that we would pick the most handsome ones to impress the girls and hopefully make them want to stay.
“We can talk about that later,” Khan told Pearl with a raised eyebrow. “For now, I want to focus on the integration between the boys and the girls.”
“Well I for one am very positive that this experiment will be a huge success,” Kya said with a smile. “I see the boys liking the massage and the meditation, and they’re very open to our ways of teaching. Once the initial teasing is over I think we’ll all be one big happy family.”
I clicked my tongue because this was a good example of how naïve Kya was. “The only reason they like your teaching,” I said, “is because you don't punish them when they don’t pay attention. From what I can see they’re more occupied with finding ways to tease the girls and get their attention than actually learning anything. I'm not sure that it's such a good idea to have them learn together. It seems to affect the boys’ concentration negatively.”
“It's natural for the children to be curious about each other,” Kya said defensively.
“I get that, but I don't see your children having any problems concentrating. It's our boys who are having it the worst and it's not fair to them.”
It was Kya’s turn to cross her arms. “I told you this would happen. The Nboys are curious, and they sit there wondering how the girls look without their clothes on, which is why having shared showers would have demystified it and made it possible for them to concentrate in school. You don’t see Tommy and Nieall having trouble concentrating, do you?”
